While Martha enjoyed her transformation and William completed his, Ben, Nate, and Eric continued their sort of movie marathon. This time going through the other classic werewolf movie, "the Howling." Eric sat quietly by, but really didn't complain. He wasn't a fan of werewolf movies the way Nate was, but the fact that they were watching them for Ben kept him from complaining. Part of him wondered why Samantha and Frances wouldn't let him watch werewolf movies. Surely Ben would know how REAL werewolves behaved and would understand that the movies intended to simply provide a thriller and give people a good scare. Eric, also, still wasn't entirely sure on what would happen with his family as a whole. He admitted he had some curiosity, but no true desire become a were-beast.
And when it was only Nate, in order to abide by Moon Lake's laws, he felt fine that he could sate his curiosity fairly well without losing his humanity, but now his father was a werefox and his mother by now was likely a werecat. Would they pressure him to becoming a were-beast too? Would they take away his choices to complete the family? Would they even stay a family? A handbook he'd gotten at school said that werecats were homosexual females. Would that mean that his mom would divorce his dad just to be with other women? Regardless of whatever William had done, divorce to be gay seemed like a pretty shallow reason for divorce. Or would she do it because of William's transformation, and as far as he knew, hadn't that been caused because William had been attacked? Did he really deserve that because someone else attacked him? Or would they divorce simply because they weren't the same species of were-beast? Wouldn't that make both of them rather shallow?
After all, the handbooks said that were-beasts of any species could inter-marry and breed, though the offspring would inherit the specific were-beast species would often depend on the gender or other specific traits, which to Eric made him figure that while were-beasts might be different from humans there wasn't that much different between were-beast species. Sort of like the differences between Caucasians and Native Americans or Asians or Africans. They might all have physical differences, but there was nothing that would indicate that a person born in France as a difference species from someone born in Japan or Zimbabwe. Eric figured that the specific differences between werewolves and werecats and werefoxes and any other were-beast was fairly similar. And all these sorts of questions went through Eric's head as he watched the movie with his brother and his friend. In fact he'd barely paid attention to it.
"Soooo...." Nate said slowly to Ben as the movies credits rolled, showing Hamburgers cooking, "what did you think?"
"A little confusing," Ben actually said slowly, "I mean... they set the Colony up like Moon Like... but every were there was a werewolf and outside of that psychologist as a purposely psychotic killer that wanted to prey on people..."
"That was the horror aspect of the movie, yeah," Nate nodded, "which was sort of the purpose of these sorts of movies..."
"I suppose... though I think they overdid it," Ben commented, "I mean... having ONE evil werewolf that wants to eat people out of a town of werewolves would still be potentially scary for people... especially if one doesn't know which were is that one evil one..."
Ben paused for a moment before continuing, "and it really isn't as if were society is devoid of flaws, criminal elements, and problems... We're not a utopia in any sense. There is that werefox that tried to rape your dad and still infected him..."
He paused for a moment to look at Nate and Eric who both looked down at his mentioning the issue with their father.
"...Sorry..." Ben said weakly, "but there are issues... any were could decide to attack people for any reason. More often than not, it's usually because they're trying to adapt through their first transformation and haven't gotten control yet... but they can make the conscious choice to be villains. It isn't common, but it has happened..."
"What happens when it does happen?" Eric asked.
"The were that has made the decision to be "criminal" is hunted down and punished, and while we do try to make sure the punishment fits the crime, if it's something that risks the exposure of us to humanity as a whole or threatens the lives of normal people... that were would be killed before he/she could do real harm," Ben said slowly, "but as I said, that isn't very common."
There was a brief silence for a few moments before Ben returned to the movie that had just ended.
"And their werewolf models were rather... odd," Ben commented, "We're bipeds yes... you've seen that, Nate... but we aren't half fur and half flesh the way Eddie was... and even weredogs aren't covered in the lengthy fur that Karen had at the end of the movie..."
"I think the movie's budget kept them from going to far," Nate answered, "and the Howling and American Werewolf in London both came before CGI, so they had to use basic makeup skills... and on a budget one may not be able to put together something for realism... or even a uniform form. They didn't have the money to repeat Eddie's transformation with Karen and at that point in the movie, they figured that they didn't need to truly get into it that much... so they cut things with regard to makeup to get to the end..."
"Well... I suppose from something to spook people with "bump in the night" sort of stuff, it works," Ben commented, "but... they seemed to create something like Moon Lake with the Colony and thus it hit a little close to home, for me."
"Don't worry," Nate said to him, "I'd think that anyone who's either moved here or done a lot of business here has learned the differences between Hollywood and the real thing."
"The scary thing," Ben commented with a wave of his hand, as if the gesture itself was trying to explain something, "is that some of their attempts at werewolf eroticism wasn't too far off the mark... Just about every were-beast species has a high libido... You'll both find that out one way or another."
"You mean I'll feel it when I change...?" Nate asked.
"You're going to make me change?" Eric asked looking up, sounding very nervous.
"No, Eric, no one will force you to change if you don't want to, especially since Nate has already volunteered to join my Pack to abide by the town's rules and your dad is a werefox and your mom is likely a werecat," Ben assured him, "the town has no legal reason to force you to become a were... and anyone that does so against your will WOULD face criminal charges... In fact, if the police and the college find proof that your father was not the instigator of the incident with the werefox that infected him, she WILL face criminal charges for forcing him to change against his will... The issue that you might notice it, though, will depend on how well your parents make up after all this. Nate's told me that they have been close and loving despite all the problems they'd had, so they could very well make up after all this. Which means, if they do reconcile... you could very well hear them having sex at night. I've heard my mothers fairly frequently... and its often why I've gone hunting or out for a run at night. Let them get all their love out of their system before coming back and going to bed."
Eric was silent on that.
"And Nate... yes... once you change you will likely feel that increased libido," Ben said slowly, "You may not be a legal adult yet... but you have hit puberty, so I'm sure you know and have the various desires of any typical teenage boy. Now... for warning... werewolves have rather complex sex lives... though I won't get into that until after you've met with the Alpha, at least, and in a more private setting."
"Thank you," was all Eric said to that.